Testing A Theory
Folc4evernaday
Chapter 4
***
Lucille Newtrich pursed her lips, pacing in front of Samantha, "I've heard of you. The photographer that became famous for faking a photograph."
"I…" Samantha was about to argue but seeing the tense expressions on the women around her she decided not to push her luck.
"So, I didn't peg you as someone that needs to keep a habit going. Why are you really here?" Lucille countered with an arched eyebrow.
"Protection." Samantha blurted out hurriedly. "I don't know my way around here and I know you and your sister run things. I'm willing to do what it takes. Just give me a chance."
"A chance, huh?" Lucille looked at her with a doubtful expression. "I suppose even the vermin deserve scraps." She looked to Nell, "Set her up on the left wing."
***
"You shouldn't have done that." Clark said, watching Lois as she finished getting ready for bed for the evening.
"Done what?" Lois asked, looking back at him expectantly, placing the brush down on the vanity.
"Lois…"
"I didn't
do anything." She harrumphed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Exactly my point." He sighed, pulling her to him. "Come on, it's been how many years since she left. Don't you think you should cut her just a little bit slack."
"Like let her discover your favorite place to jet out from when you're flying around?" Lois pressed with a knowing look.
"You know what I mean," He said shaking his head ruefully at her. "And seriously? I like hanging out with rats because I'm from a farm? You couldn't come up with anything better than that?"
"Well…" She shrugged, stepping away from him. "Okay, I was a little off my game."
"A little?" He teased, following her toward the bed and helping to remove the throw pillows.
"Okay, a lot." She admitted sheepishly. "I don't know what it is I just feel off balance with her back. Like all of a sudden…" She stopped, trailing off on her sentence and looking away.
"What?" He asked, placing a hand on her shoulder as she took a seat on the edge of the bed.
"She acts like nothing's changed, Clark. Everything changed. We worked together for years and she disappeared in the middle of the night without a word then after all this time she's back. Poof. I'm sorry I can't just forgive her as easily as you and Perry can."
"It's been three years, Lois. Give her a chance. She seems to be genuinely trying to turn over a new leaf." Clark pointed out, taking a seat next to her on the bed.
"Hah!" Lois scoffed irritably. "She is still just as infuriating as she was before."
"How so?" He asked, looking at her expectantly. Lois fell silent for a moment and he sighed, "Just try and give her a chance. I've seen you welcome criminals more warmly than you have Cat."
"I guess maybe I have been a little unfair to her." She relented, leaning back on the bed.
"You have treated Kyle Griffin nicer." He joked, falling back on the bed next to her.
"Fine." Lois said, rolling on her side to face him. "I'll give her a chance, but I'm not promising anything."
"Good." He leaned in to kiss her. "Now, have you noticed anything?" He directed his gaze to the window.
"No, why?" She asked, following his gaze to the window.
"No more paparazzi." He murmured, leaning in to kiss her cheek. "Camped outside." He brushed his lips against her chin.
"How bad did you scare them?" Lois giggled as he moved his attention to her ear.
"Hopefully enough to keep them away." He whispered in her ear, tugging at the lobe with his teeth.
"My hero," She gasped in surprise when he ran his teeth against her throat, running his hands against the silk of her negligee, pushing it up her long legs as he continued the pleasurable assault on her body.
"I love you," He murmured, rolling them over so he was hovering over her. His hands moved up and down her sides suggestively and she let out a soft moan as he moved to capture her lips.
***
Samantha stared at the box in Nell Newtrich's cell as she waited for the money she was supposed to deliver. Money she could have only dreamed of seeing a few weeks ago. How her life had become this never-ending web of deception she would never know. She saw a red glow come from the box Nell grabbed a roll of bills from and gasped. 'The rock.'
"You screw up and you're done. You don't give names. You don't squeal." Nell wagged a roll of bills at her as she spoke.
"Of course," Samantha swallowed hard, "I won't let you down."
***
The next morning, Cat Grant stood by the coffee machine, holding filling her coffee mug with steaming hot coffee as she kept a keen eye on the reporters around her. Dianne fetched a bagel and hot tea. Jimmy had his energy drink and box of doughnuts for the staff meeting this morning. Then there was Clark, sickeningly close to Lois as the couple exited the elevator together. Cat rolled her eyes, waiting for her chance. She had to wait until he was alone. She needed to find a way to test Clark but right now she was coming up blank. It's not like she could walk up to him with a gun and start shooting.
What if she was wrong?
Then she would have injured or possibly killed an innocent man and be spending the rest of her life behind bars—just like her cousin. No, there were other ways to test him.
"All right, everyone, staff meeting in ten!" Perry bellowed across the newsroom.
Cat jumped slightly, almost dropping her mug and thought,
'That wouldn't have been good.' "Careful, Cat. That would have been a bad burn." Kathy said from behind her, putting the juice back in the fridge.
"Right." Cat said, looking down at her mug.
"Excuse me," Clark pushed behind them to grab two coffee mugs and began pouring. Cat looked down at her coffee mug.
'That's it.' Cat thought. Watching as he reached for the pot of coffee. Just a gentle shove. That's all it would take. If he didn't get burned that would prove her theory.
She prepared to turn and face him, keeping her mug tilted out in his direction when out of nowhere Ralph sauntered up, grabbing the cream from Clark, "Hey just cuz you and Lane got the city beat doesn't mean you can hog the…"
It was too late. Before she could stop it her mug tilted over, pouring half her coffee all over Ralph's hand. "Son of a….Geez! Watch it will ya?"
"Ralph, come on, man it was an accident." Clark chided, handing him a set of wet paper towels from the sink.
"I'm so sorry." Cat apologized, grabbing a towel to help blot the hot liquid. "Are you okay?"
"Does this look like I'm okay?" Ralph held up his reddened hand with a scowl.
"She said she was sorry." Clark interjected.
"Yeah, I'll remember to tell my doctor that when he's peeling off my dead skin."
Clark looked at the hand for a moment and countered, "It's a coffee burn. It'll be tender for a few days and that's it." He smirked at him. "Unless you need permission to go about your day from your doctor on a daily basis?"
Cat snickered, wiping the side of her cup with a paper towel. "What are you laughing at?" Ralph scowled.
"Nothing." Cat said, suppressing an involuntary giggle.
"You should get some ice on that." Clark suggested, pointing to the fridge as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Nah, really!" Ralph scoffed. "Save it Kansas. I got this." He turned and opened the fridge, pulling out the spreadable butter.
"I wouldn't do that." Clark shook his head.
"Yeah, yeah," Ralph muttered, taking a plastic knife and dropping a large clump on his hand. He yelped when it hit his sore hand.
Clark winced, "That is not going to be pretty." He grabbed the other cup and excused himself, "Might want to step back. I know how clumsy you get around hot coffee, Ralph."
***
The pounding in her head continued as fist after fist came in contact with her skull. Then a foot. Then another fist. It was like this for what felt like hours. Then an alarm blew and it stopped. She looked up and saw the guard throw the brass knuckle ring to the ground. "Get up!"
Try as she might she couldn't move. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. "You deaf?" A hard shove in her ribs and she squinted, trying to prepare herself for the inevitable pain that would follow down her spine.
"Get up!"
***
Lois walked over to Clark who was grabbing a paper off the fax. "So, I had Jimmy run a background check on this Warden Baker. Guess who gave the recommendation for him to get the promotion to warden two years ago?"She fanned the folder in her hand, looking at him expectantly. They'd been hitting the pavement hard since they arrived at the Planet this morning. Prison corruption was one thing but if what she suspected was going on was true then this was bigger than either of them had imagined.
"I don't suppose it was the meter maid." Clark joked, following her toward the coffee machine.
"Don't be ridiculous." She scoffed, handing him the file. "Bill Church Jr. wrote a glowing recommendation when Baker was up for promotion. Then magically the other candidate being considered got pulled over for a DUI."
"I don't like where this is going." Clark groaned, stopping to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee.
"Only problem is when they pulled the guy's blood there was nothing in his system. Case was thrown out of course but not before the charge made him lose the promotion to Baker." Lois said smugly.
"Really,
really don't like where this is going." Clark pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't suppose this could have been an innocent mistake?"
"Officer that did the arrest disappeared along with the breathalyzer from the evidence locker." Lois frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.
A loud crash came from the other side of the newsroom. They both turned to see Jimmy on his back in the aisle between their desks with papers scattered around him. "Jimmy, you all right?" Clark raced to their friend's side to help him up.
"Look out, there's something on the floor here." Lois grimaced, running her foot across the wet floor.
"Oh, that was not good." Jimmy groaned, staring up at the ceiling.
Clark bent down, putting his finger to it and feeling it with his index finger and thumb. "Feels waxy. Like wax and shine maybe."
"Yeah, no kidding." Jimmy grumbled, allowing Clark to help him up.
"Easy there, Jimmy," Clark said. He lowered his glasses and looked him over before helping him stand up. "Looks like you didn't hit anything hard enough to do any real damage."
"Other than my ego." Jimmy groaned, looking around the crowd of Daily Planet staff that had surrounded them.
"Hey, what's going on out here?" Perry bellowed, racing out of his office.
"Might want to tell the cleaning lady to watch the stuff she uses." Jimmy said with a pained expression, rubbing the back of his head as he eased himself to his feet.
"Cleaning?" Perry frowned. "They only do the floors on Sundays." He looked at Jimmy in concern, "Here why don't you have a seat on the couch in my office and rest for a bit." He turned to Kathy, "Can you grab the first aid?"
"I'm fine, Chief," Jimmy began to argue.
He looked down at the papers that had fallen and Lois stopped him before he could bend down. "I've got it, Jimmy." She hurriedly gathered the papers with Clark's and a few other staff members' help as Jimmy made his way to Perry's office, holding his back.
***
Cat watched as Jimmy was escorted to Perry's office with a groan. That had not gone according to plan at all. She looked down at the bottle of wax and shine she'd confiscated from the janitor's closet. It had been a simple plan. She had watched Clark leave his desk to get a fax. It had taken all of two seconds for her to pretend she'd dropped a pen when walking by and dropped a few large drops of the wax and shine from her paper cup. All she had to do was wait for Clark to walk back to his desk.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Jimmy chose that very moment to walk by and place something on Clark's desk. She sighed, closing the drawer to her desk. Hopefully, Jimmy hadn't been hurt too bad. It seemed proving Clark was Superman would be harder than she originally thought.
She turned back to her computer and saw Lois standing over her. "Yes?"
Lois seemed to be struggling internally with whatever it was she was trying to say. "I just wanted to say that...I think you and I got off to a rough start."
Cat looked back at her dumbfounded. Was Lois Lane seriously trying to apologize to her? She felt the shock begin to come over her as she did her best to remain calm. This was good. This was too good. "I see." She responded.
"You've obviously changed from the last time you were in Metropolis and I've changed too." Lois began cautiously, meeting her gaze. "I'm not the same person I was three years ago and I've been treating you like you were the same person that left us. That wasn't fair."
Cat wasn't sure how to respond. It was true. Lois had treated her just as dismissively as she had in the past. "Well, I appreciate that." She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. She was completely taken off guard with Lois' admission. "For the record, I didn't leave because I wanted to."
"Then why did you?" Lois asked, looking at her expectantly.
"Well, it was a lot of things." Cat began carefully, uncertain how much she wanted to divulge about her past with Lois. The phone on her desk rang and she sighed, "Just a minute." She picked up the phone, "Cat Grant," She answered.
"Ms. Grant? I have you listed as the emergency contact for a Samantha…"
"What happened?" She cut the voice on the other line off.
"There's been an accident. She's in the infirmary."
"I'll be right there." Cat set the phone down and looked up at Lois. "I'm sorry. We're going to have to finish this later." She stood up, grabbing her things frantically.
"Cat are you all right?" Lois asked, looking at her.
"I'm fine." Cat lied.
"You're shaking." Lois observed, pointing to her hand that was gripping her keys tightly.
"I…" Cat took a deep breath, "I've got to go. I'm sorry."
"What's going on?" Lois pressed, blocking her from leaving the confines of her desk.
"I...I need to go. I've got a family member that's been...hurt." She managed to say.
"Okay," Lois took the keys from her. "I'll drive."
"No, that's really not…"
"Cat this isn't up for debate." Lois cut her off.
***
TBC...
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